Abstract

The issues arising from free radicals have made antioxidants and such studies regarding it one of the main objectives in a lot of plant research. Piper sarmentosum Roxb. or better to the locals as â€œDaun Kadukâ€ is one of the plant containing beneficial antioxidant compounds to help keep down the free radicals production that can harm human bodies. In this study, genomic DNA of the plant was isolated and used to screen for gene of interest. Four common methods for plant DNA extraction were used to determine the best method for isolating genomic DNA from this plant and Modified CTAB method has been identified as the best among the four. The extracted DNA from the method was used subsequently for the screening process via PCR. Two similar genes with homology to SOC1 (also known as AGL20) were successfully isolated. At approximately 457bp, the genes contained similar sequences with Arabidopsis thaliana AGL20 (AGAMOUS-LIKE 20) gene with 46.1% homology. Consequently the genes were cloned into pGEM vector for further study.